1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to tuning apparatus for string instruments, and more particularly, to such devices that are automatically tuned by simply striking the string being tuned.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Musicians need to constantly tune their instruments because of the changing physical conditions and characteristics of the materials of which those instruments are made, specially string instruments. Prior to a performance, it is not unusual to see musicians adjusting their instruments under non-optimal conditions, noise, darkness, distracting audiences, etc. Furthermore, beginners usually have a hard time tuning their instruments, and sometimes, it takes a considerably amount of practice to master this task.
The closest disclosure resolving this problem corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,052 issued to W. David Hedrick in 1978. Hedrick's device is not a completely automatic device since the user has to monitor the reading of meter 16, rotate knob 20 and, more important, the device requires the mechanical connection of flexible shaft 28 to each one of the string mechanisms. Here, we have a tuning device that is self-contained in the string instrument and requires no manipulation of controls other than striking the string to be tuned.
Another attempt to solve this problem is documented in U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,124 issued to Ruperto L. Rosado in 1977. In his disclosure, the patentee describes a circuit for generating a master reference signal from which the standard tones are derived and compared to the electric signals produced by the different strings and lighting elements indicate when the user has achieved the necessary tension on each string that matches the reference tone. However, the user must use both hands as if he were tuning the instrument conventionally, which is something that the present invention avoids. Not only that, but the user of this invention does not have to pay attention to complicated gauges in order for him to tune his instrument.
Other patents describing the closest subject matter provide for a number of more or less complicated features that fail to solve the problem in an efficient and economical way. None of these patents suggest the novel features of the present invention.